Friday, 30 May 2008

So for now, this is the plan for the weekend. I am in K1's shop in Glasgow on Saturday, and then in Edinburgh on Sunday! Click on the site for details. I have lots of yummy yarns, come and say hello!!!!

Yesterday was product development day. Today, is trying my hardestnot to spill the beans to you lot about it because its to exciting. THEproduct has been dyed, and balled, and I will take it with me to K1 onthe weekend, you can't buy it yet, but you should be able to atWoolfest, fingers crossed. I will sell ALOT of this, I promise you, andyou will LOVE IT.

Its not a new yarn either, oooohhhhh, now thats got ya.

Infact I will do a competition with it as soon as I am allowed to talk about it.

Thursday, 29 May 2008

When I was in Norway, we went to this lovely place and had cake and coffee, they had quite a few outdoor art instillations which were amazing, but this was the best, it was a huge kaleidoscope, which you could look into, this photo was taken on my phone, its Kari and Per at the end, lol

As you know, the last few weeks, every thursday THE DAY BEFORE UPDATE DAY it has rained, which means chaos because the yarn gets completely soaked. Not that it does any harm, its just un-update-able, Yep folks that IS a real word.

Yesterday was an extremely productive day, I dyed, packed, and organised, I was well chuffed, so last night I chanted, mainly to stop my head from exploding with excitement, and I threw a few D's in for a lovely sunny day today so that I can take a gorgeous hoard of DRY wool to K1 at the weekend. I woke up and its lovely and dry, chilly, but perfect drying day, not saying that it was my chanting or nothin, but I seem to be in rhythm with the universe this past week or so, since I let go of a few rocks I was carrying, so I think I broke the curse, yippeee, lol.

Oh and decided not to go to the USA next week. I have a limit, and thats way over it. We have postponed it to early July instead, after Woolfest :-) That way we can take a more leisurely trip and enjoy ourselves, and it gives me time to prepare properly, and get on with the projects that need immediate attention.

So, I sort of hope there is some yarn left from K1, because I have done some really nice colours, which would be fab for the shop. I was trying to work through the rainbow, and am about 1/4 of the way through, lol.

Oh and I decided to start exercising today, I was going to go weight training, but think I will start running first. I love weight training, but I haven't done any for 5 years, so I need to ease myself in, lol.

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

OK, all socks clubs have been posted, yippppppeee. Thats always a relief, lol.

Update is rather somewhat slow today as a result, so instead of stressing I will just continue to update the shop over the next day or so, there are some nice hand dyes to go on there in addition to the extra sale yarns I need to put on. I have lots of yarn to dye for my visit to K1 at the weekend tomorrow, I am sooooo excited about this trip, its going to be lots of fun meeting lots of you lot, and Katherine and I have exciting future projects to discuss.

Are there any requests for yarns or colours you would particularly like me to bring? Leave me a comment or email if you do, because I am dyeing tomorrow, so its no problemo.

I am waiting to hear if I have funding to go to the USA next week, yep, NEXT WEEK, I can't book anything until they give me the go ahead, which is cutting it a little bit fine, as much as I am looking forward to it, I am pretty glad this is the end of my traveling for a little while, I am absolutely desperate to get into a routine with fyberspates and get working on fs trading straight away. Although all the trips contribute to both businesses considerably, I am just so excited to get started with everything properly.

Feeling mightily excited this evening, the house is all spick and span, things feel like they are moving in a really great direction, and I am going to have a beer, cook some food and get on with some knitting, I have a design I need to get finished by the weekend.

Monday, 26 May 2008

So, I just got back from Norway. Yep, it was completely and totally amazing. Firstly it tops all the countries I have been to, because it clean, beautiful, and you feel like it is impossible to get ill there, and the houses are amazing, oh and the fact that sledging and skiing are kind of compulsory in the winter, how cool is that?

OK, look the houses are exactly as you would imagine them!!

I had a super two days, I feel very refreshed, and excited. It was a business trip, but it felt like I was visiting old friends, we ate extremely delicious food, (smoked elk heart and elk burgers top my favorites) and we laughed allot!! We even watched the Eurovision song contest, and in the end, we were voting for Norway because it was doing alot better than the UK, I want to go back very soon!!!

Kari and Perr, have a beautiful dog, who is just lovely:

we can't remember his name in Norweigen, name but it means bear, he is so gorgeous.

So the point of going? Well, it was to discuss distributing Du Store Alpakka yarns in the UK. And guess what? I am!!! Yippeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! There are many reasons why I am so excited to distribute this yarn, including the social conscience of Du Store Alpakka, the high quality of the yarns, and the gorgeous range of colours and last but not least the pattern support is phenomenal, really phenomenal, (Kari is a very talented designer) I am in charge of getting things translated ASAP, so I will show you the patterns we are translating really soon, I know you will love them.

Here is a little pic taken of their shop to give you an idea of thegorgeous colour palettes, they just make you want to knit, they really do!

The other wonderful thing about this brand, is that its complimented bybeautiful pins and buttons that are made especially to compliment thecolours of the yarns. You will see soon what I mean, and also there isa story to go with the buttons as well as the yarns, and you know how Ilove a story :-) I will tell you all about it in the next few weeks, because it will be a good way for me to get it all down and organised in my head.

Fyberspates will continue as normal, but in a slightly different way. I feel as though the distribution will teach me alot, and that it will enable me to develop the company having good grounding. The distribution will be operating under a new company, called FS trading. (Thats the first time I have written it and am mightily proud, hehe.)

SO as a result of all of this excitement I have been completing my finishing touches to my organization at Fyberspates HQ and this organisation has meant lots of things being unearthed that need to be sold, and you know what that means folks? A flippin sale! Yep. A sale, there will be a small amount of hand dyed, but there will be mainly the alpaca I got from Peru, and some lovely solid sock yarns (£1.50 for 50gms) which are perfect for fairailse socks, and can be combined with hand dyed too for interesting effects. So it will all be update tomorrow starting in the morning, so keep an eye out!

Right I am off to drink wine, and celebrate my new business and my organised and tidy life :-)

Friday, 23 May 2008

Ok, all sock clubs will go Monday, although I dyed them in time, rain seems like a tradition here on Thursdays now, they are worth waiting for though, lovely bright summery colours, inspired by those ranges of plastic picnic wear you find in B&Q and various supermarkets, lol!!

Shop will also be updated on Monday seeing as its too wet too.

Never mind, there are lots of goodies to wait for, I just hope the weather is sunny on Monday.

hope you have a lovely weekend and enjoy the sunshine. I am not sure what the weather is like in Norway.

Oh here is my panta headband, I look too rough today for a closeup, I need some serious sleep and sunshine and fruit:

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Stash was really fun, I was a bit knackered and tired, so I wasn't as chatty as I normally am, but it was lovely, and I hope the yarns do really well there. I knitted a panta head band on the train down in cherry scrumptious chunky, just waiting for the camera to be charged up and then I will pop a pic of it. Pattern is free on ravelry, its super and quick, perfect if you like wearing headbands.

So dyeing all my yarn today, I have so many custom orders I have to get finished and also the clubs, eek, so sorry if I am slow replying to emails, I need to get these things out the way before I do anything else. There will be a nice update on Friday, despite the fact that I am flying to Norway, lol!! I am very very excited about this, I am going to meet Kari and Per of Du store Alpakka, Yippee!! I now have a permanently packed case, I have never ever done so much traveling in my life, thank goodness I have Carmella to look after the little monkey cat.

Monday, 19 May 2008

I am in London today going to the stash fyberspates evening at Stash. Very exciting, but just to say that orders won't be posted until probably tomorrow afternoon, but definitely wed.

Finished my stock take, only too three weeks lol, but the house is starting to look good, and the stock is extremely organised, and I now have a working stock list, which means my life just got a whole lot easier.

and Abi!!! I put the new shelving rack up and its amazing, you would be very pleased, lol!!

Friday, 16 May 2008

OK, so I have the mother of all hangovers, its The noblins fault, we were having too much fun!!No really, we have a lovely evening, Abi, Judy, and I had dinner in my favourite restaurant in the world and took advantage of the free bottle of wine I won as a result of being subscribed to the news letter (I think), and then we went onto shot in the dark for stitch n' bitch, and Um, drank more wine, and kind of knitted but got drunk too, well me and Judy did anyway, I really enjoyed myself, it felt like proper going out.

Today I am struggling to look at the screen, but have updated everything I could find, lol! There is yarn, after the fibres. There is alot of fibres which I completely forgot to put on last week, and some scrumptious lace which is rationed now because I am nearly out of stock and can't get any more till July, :-(.

Anyway, here is my favourite fibres of the week:

Its nef. I am in love.

So off to Coldharbour mill for some yarny fun and chats, then to a knitting machine guild event on Sunday to sell yarn, and then Stash on Monday. Have a superb weekend folks, hope the sun shines where you are :-)

Thursday, 15 May 2008

So Noblin knits and I have been working very hard. We went to Ikea and purchased half the storage section, in order to organise Fyberspates HQ. Seeing as we were stock taking, we decided to organise at the same time, so we did the shed first seeing as it was a lovely sunny day. Its amazing!!!! I am so chuffed, here is when we thought it would never end....

Here is when I was actually excited about putting the boxes in and stocktaking:

And this is what it looked like at 9pm last night.

So thats the first stage of the sock take. I have alot more to do, but I feel better already, and the most exciting thing is I have a working stock list so I know how much I have of all my yarns, so so exciting, and a wonderful relief. We bought storage for the shop/office room and I am so looking forward to filling it and making everything gorgeous. The result though is that I have lots of white yarns on cones and things to put in the shop. So if you love dyeing and fancy something different keep an eye out tomorrow, because there will be an undyed update in the shop. There will be a dyed one too, but not huge this time, I am feeling mildy anxious because the shop is rather empty, but hey, it means you guys love the yarn so I am happy! lol.

So, anyway we are off out for dinner and then stitch and bitch, because we blinking well deserve it!! Oh and Stash yarns in London are showcasing Fyberspates this month, so I will be there Monday eve for the yarn tasting. :-)

Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Right! I have been meaning to post this for ages!! So Tigerlilith is running a 5k run on the 8th of June to raise money for cancer research, if you donate, you get a chance to win some unbelievable prizes!!! Not to mention a 50 quid Fyberspates voucher for the shop, I urge you to go over to the blog and have a read of the treats and make a donation!!! Amazing!

I have a Noblin coming to help me for a few days today, I am very excited, not exactly sure where she is going to sleep yet, but perhaps a bed of yarn?

Got lots more exciting things coming up. But that'll do for now cherubs. Hope you are enjoying the sunshine, I am going to take all my yarn outside and pack my orders, its going to take a little time, I think people were loving the colours this weekend, lol!

I am absolutely in love with it, I have cast on for the front pieces, and I absolutely know it will take less than two skeins of scrumptious, thats pretty impressive really, it goes a seriously long way!!

Despite the fact that I left everything plugged in and out in the sunshine yesterday and returned to pouring rain, the yarn is not as wet as I expected, so the update will go ahead as planned, yippee, (damned weather in Cardiff).

I will start updating now, but this is probably the biggest update ever so it will take a few hours at least, lol, but should be done by tea time.

Here are a few little tasters for you:

Lemon grass scrumptious lace:

lace in Sunshine:

Kid mohair in Candy floss.

Lace in 'The owl and the pussy cat'.

and a few more.... (i am very proud of this weeks update as you might be able to tell, lol)

Thursday, 8 May 2008

Imagine the update with it all put in the shop at the same time, lol, you know what I am like I always take 2 days to update the shop, but not tomorrow!! At least of it is actually dry, and ready to go, camera batteries are charging, and I am loving the colours, lots of srumptious dk, lace weights, and sock, yum yum yum. I might post some pics later if the sun gets weaker, its hard to take photo's when the light is so strong. Nice thing to complain about though huh? ;-)

Wednesday, 7 May 2008

Ok, so no photo's but at least the battery charges is winging its way to me, so there will be some soon.

Ok, so I don't really eat things like apples and oranges and things out of a fruit bowl, I like them, they just seem boring. I will eat mangoes and avacado, but not normal fruit, lol, so I have to make a concerted effort to eat fruit, but I LOVE stewed fruit, I make lots of it and put it in the fridge, and am happy to eat it all day long. Yesterday I had to use up some rhubarb and cooking apples and I made the yummiest fruit compote ever!! So here goes:

Equal quantities of bramley apples and rhubarb, chop, add a little water, AND this is the magic ingredient, add some Elderflower cordial to sweeten instead of sugar, it tastes like heaven, and cook it on a low heat until stewed to you preference, yummy with icecream or yogurt, would make a superb trifle fruit. Honest the elderflower cordial makes it taste so yummy. Sainsburys and waitrose have lots of elderflower cordials, so its easy to make. ;-)

Tuesday, 6 May 2008

I actually did some knitting over the bank holiday, in amongst applying for various grants, and drinking gin and tonics in the garden and planting my fruit bushes, tomato plants and squashes, and of course bombarded my borders with tonnes of little pansies. It look superb, the vines are growing huge leaves, and should start climbing again in the next few days. I will take some pics once I find the battery charger for the camera. Even if my house is a state, I can always spend hours pottering in the garden, its so gorgeous, and I love the way it is never the same two days running. So thats it now, I will probably spend all my time in the Garden, and dyeing is so much more fun in the Garden.

So the lacy camisole I am knitting in scrumptious is simply gorgeous, and I want it finished by the weekend, I have nearly finished the back and will hopefully finish the front very soon, like I said pics asap.

Friday, 2 May 2008

So, I feel like I am starting to get on top of things, and my normal frantic life is calming a little, or at least I feel more in Control. I have had a few offers of help recently from Elly and Abi, and for the first time in my life I accepted. I feel very relieved to be honest. I have started to have a little help on a Wednesday afternoon now, and that is also making a really big difference.

So, I even went proper food shopping for the first time in quite a few weeks, marmite on toast wasn't cutting it, and last night I stopped work at 6 at once, and put a dress on, and some slap, and EVEN planned a project which is gorgeous from 'knitting Lingerie Style' and whats even better my scrumptious fits the bill perfectly, so I grabbed a purple skein and off I went, and it was really super, and I knitted quite a bit, the solid scrumptious is really nice to work with, its alot softer than the mulitcoloured, and has a soft haze to it, I need to addit to my ravelry projects, see, thats what I mean, I haven't knitted anything from a pattern in years, I have felt so rushed, that I never feel like knitting anything other than what I have to, and I feel so excited again, to knit things for me, so I have beautiful clothes, it even crossed my mind this morning that I would like to try and make alot more of my own clothes, now that a serious sign that the creativity is coming back. I think that when my brain has to worry if I will be able to stay in my little palace in splott for another month, or not it takes up so much energy, I suppose, I am learning to trust that I am doing well now, and the business is successful and I have the ability to have all the things I want, I work bloody hard enough for it, lol.

The garden looks stunning by the way, the blossoms are out, and today the sun is shining and drying the 20 kilo's hung out on my tree frame, the birds are singing, and I am itching to get out and dye some gorgeous silks and things. There will be an update later on in the day.......

Happy knitting

ps, is there any significance in purple? I have been dyeing for the past week EVERYTHING in purples, as you will notice from the update, also, I am knitting in purple, have never ever done that before!!!!